Title: Valentines (There Will Be)Author:clair_de_lunePairing: Michael/SaraGenres: RomanceRating: PGSummary: They’ve met under less than perfect circumstances, but when he thinks about it, he believes that there will be...Notes: Written a while ago for a challenge at french_fanfics (Original version here)Beta:recycledfaery

They’ve met under less than perfect circumstances; this is an understatement. But he thinks that perfection may be overrated, and he is a man of faith (... probably not in the traditional sense...). So, when he thinks about it, he believes that there will be...

* *

... the year when she will burn the roast. Not because they will be busy, just because... a pure and simple accident, she will forget it in the oven. (He doesn’t think of her as such a great cook and it’s perfectly fine: that’s the reason why takeouts have been created.)

... the year they will rent a cabin in the mountains and she will spend a whole afternoon spying on the squirrel that will be wandering near the house. He’ll think that he had nothing against squirrels, he even kind of liked them, before.

... the year he will forget to buy candles, or Champagne, or chocolates – one of these stupid things that get out of control in a blink of an eye – and he will end up on the couch, watching the twentieth rerun of a movie laden with nostalgia.

... the year Baby will keep them up all night, crying and screaming (and even, when he is Planning way ahead of time, the year they will baby-sit their crying and screaming grand-kids). They will probably dine out on headache pills and nothing else.

... the year they will again rent a cabin in the mountains (because he is stubborn) and he will absolutely insist that they eat the fish that he will catch. Luckily, she will have steaks packed in the fridge because, even if she isn’t a great cook, he has never been and never will be a great fisherman.

... the year they will try to cook an exotic and original meal – and ‘original’ will effectively be the appropriate epithet. Because, even after all these years... takeouts will still be there, thank God.

... the year they will have planned to eat dinner in a nice and fancy restaurant, and they will be stuck at home because of the snow. And... OK, maybe this won’t really count as a failure.

... the year she will lay on the couch and watch the movie. Because he isn’t the jealous kind, Sara, but this guy will have stared at her with way too much attention and he will really not understand how she will have missed it. She will tell him that if he really doesn’t get it, then he’s probably not that smart, Michael, and she won’t sleep with such an idiot. So she will sleep on the couch. With the blankets. He will join her when she turns off the TV anyway.

... the year they will misunderstand each other, and he will wait for her at the hospital, while she will have gone directly to the movie. She will get home so sorry, with butterflies in her stomach, and with a heart-shaped cake bought at the store next to the movie theater.

... the year LJ will end up in their living room, quite miserable, but not enough so they will want him to stay around. Sara will fuss around him with so much eagerness in order to cheer him up that he will ask her if she’s doing drugs. Michael will seriously consider... well, he will consider anyway... dropping a sleeping pill in his nephew’s coffee, getting the hell out of here and taking a room at the nearest Hilton.

... the year they will be ‘on a break’. She will have the sudden and stupid impulse to grab this heavy pair of scissors he likes so much to cut in a dozen pieces this picture he likes so much. Fortunately, he will have several copies of the image and he will never realize what she will have done.

... the year she will wait for him at his office, while he will have gone directly to the restaurant, and she will accuse him to have purposely done that, as some sort of retaliation. He will lay on the couch and watch the twenty-second rerun of the damn movie.

... the year Lincoln will phone seven times within a few hours, apparently choosing the worst possible moment each time. It will probably be the first year because afterwards, they will take the phone off the hook and turn off their cell phones. Even close the shutters and lock all the doors. Because a Plan elaborated by Michael won’t be a failure two years in a row...

* *

It will never be smooth and that will be absolutely fine with him, because hell is when everything is perfect and easy and nothing, not even memories, stick around.

I like this, it's interesting. And you're right, nothing is ever perfect, it's the problems and bumps in the road that make it. Without those it would really just be unreal and shallow, because nothing in life is without it's good and it's bad. I like to think that they would overcome every obstacle though :)